Maxime Burgher | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Competition between pair and single-particle superfluidity in bosonic quasi-flat bands: A Gaussian state approach

The interplay between interactions and quantum geometry can drive weakly dispersive bosons into different exotic many-body phases. In this work we study a quasi flat-band model in one dimension that exhibits an extended pair-superfluid phase in the all-flat-band limit. Introducing single-particle hopping leads to an intriguing competition with a more conventional single-particle superfluid: we find that the pair superfluid remains stable for a finite range of the hopping strength until the system eventually transitions into the conventional superfluid phase. In our study, we make use of a variational Gaussian state approach that provides a unified description of the single-particle and pair superfluid phases, regarding both the ground state wavefunction and the collective excitation spectrum. In particular, we derive a general relation between the speed of sound and a ``quantum geometric kernel'', thereby extending earlier connections to the quantum metric, which relied on single-particle mean-field theory. This approach is combined with insights from the two-boson problem and exact diagonalization to map out the full phase diagram of the model. Our results show that the Gaussian approach is a versatile tool for studying a broad range of superfluid phases of interacting bosons in multi-orbital lattices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Fate of chiral order and impurity self-pinning in flat bands with local symmetry

Interacting bosons on a single plaquette threaded by a $\pi$-flux can spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry, resulting in a chiral loop current. Connecting such bosonic $\pi$-flux plaquettes in a dispersive configuration was recently shown to lead to long-range chiral order. Here, instead, we design a chain of $\pi$-flux plaquettes that exhibits an all-flat-bands single-particle energy spectrum and an extensive set of local symmetries. Using Elitzur's theorem, we show that these local symmetries prevent the emergence of long-range chiral order. Moreover, projecting the dynamics to a Creutz ladder model with an effective intra-rung interaction allows one to derive simple spin Hamiltonians capturing the ground state degeneracy and the low-energy excitations, and to confirm the absence of chiral order. Nevertheless, we show how to obtain gauge-invariant information from a mean-field approach, which explicitly break gauge-invaraince. Finally, we observe an ``impurity self-pinning'' phenomenon, when an extra boson is added on top of a ground state at integer filling, resulting in a non-dispersive density peak. Exact diagonalization benchmarks are also provided, and experimental perspectives are discussed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗